The present invention relates to a guillotine biopsy needle, the combination and shape of the parts of which provide it with particularly useful characteristics.
Biopsy needles are already known in which the histologic drawing member consists of a pair of tweezers, the closure of which is remotely controlled, the tweezers being mounted at one end of a flexible cable held within a flexible sheath. This assembly is arranged as to afford the possibility of carrying out the histologic drawing even from organs which can only be accessed through a tortuous path including loops and bends.
The aforementioned known needles, on the other hand, are able of performing the drawing operation exclusively on the surface of the organ to be assayed.
Biopsy rigid needles for endotissue drawing operations are moreover known adapted to operate in combination with rigid endoscopes.
However there are not available biopsy flexible needles adapted to cooperate with flexible endoscopes for histologically drawing endotissues.
Accordingly, the main object of the present invention is to provide such a flexible needle for histologically drawing endotissues.
This and other objects of the invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following disclosure.
More specifically the guillotine biopsy needle according to the invention is essentially characterized in that it comprises a guillotine portion, a drawing member longitudinally slidable with said guillotine portion, said drawing member being rigid with the free end of a flexible cable which is driven for sliding within a flexible sheath by control means acting on the opposite end of said flexible cable.